I recently had a brief conversation with a friend of mine about our car’s fuel efficiency. He drives a Jetta that gets approximately 20-22 mpg “regular driving” (whatever mix of highway/city we manage to get) and my car gets approximately 29-31 mpg “regular driving.” We all realize that fuel efficiency matters, but how much does it matter in actual dollars? It’s really an arithmetic exersize but it’s always fun to stretch your Excel skills and learn some useful statistics.

Assuming that the annual mileage is 15,000 miles, this is the table:

Fuel Cost:

mpg

$2/gal

$2.25/gal

$2.50/gal

$3/gal

10

$3,000

$3,375

$3,750

$4,500

15

$2,000

$2,250

$2,500

$3,000

20

$1,500

$1,687.50

$1,875

$2,250

25

$1,200

$1,350

$1,500

$1,800

30

$1,000

$1,125

$1,250

$1,500

35

$857.14

$937.50

$1,071.43

$1,285.71

40

$750

$843.75

$937.50

$1,125

50

$600

$675

$750

$900

60

$500

$562.50

$625

$750

My girlfriend’s manual Honda Civic gets around 40 mpg (!!!) and I know a lot of folks with sub-15 mpg trucks, the difference in what they pay in gasoline a year, assuming $2/gal gasoline (if you can find it!), is $1,250! At $2.25 (still low around here), the difference is $1406.25. I can think of a lot of really nice things to buy with $1,250 a year.